Electric vehicle range anxiety: Lexus explains

Lexus explains… is a series designed to explain features, technologies and user questions related to modern vehicles. Each article provides clear, jargon-free answers, helpful tips and resources, as well as Lexus products or services that can help along the way. This article aims to demystify some of the questions surrounding electric vehicle range anxiety.

Electric vehicle range anxiety: context

Every vehicle, irrespective of how it is fuelled or powered, has a range: a distance that it should be capable of covering before the vehicle’s energy source needs to be replenished. Several factors contribute to the potential range of a vehicle, including the power and efficiency of its engine or motor, the size of its fuel tank or battery pack, its aerodynamic properties, and the driver behind the wheel.

However, the term ‘range anxiety’ – defined by Oxford Languages as the concern that a vehicle will “run out of power before the destination or a suitable charging point is reached” – is primarily used in relation to electric vehicles (EVs). Real or perceived anxiety about an electric vehicle’s potential range therefore remains an obstacle to ownership.

Lexus would like to help alleviate such concerns by providing simple, digestible and reassuring facts about electric vehicles and so-called range anxiety. Each point can be verified by clicking on the hyperlinks to both official and independent sources.

Five reasons not to be anxious

• Wide accessibility of charging points: You are never far from an opportunity to top-up on route, should that be necessary. There are thousands of public charging points throughout the UK – in fact, more than 68,000 across some 35,000 locations at the last count (Aug 2024). It is an infrastructure that is currently growing at a rate of around 41% year-on-year. By way of comparison, there are little more than 8,300 traditional fuel stations in the UK, and the number of locations has fallen 36% since 2000. This means the UK has more than four times as many EV charging locations as refuelling stations.

• Convenience of charging: Vehicles with internal combustion engines can usually only be topped up at a traditional fuel station, but EVs are not so restricted. Around 90% of EV owners will plug-in at home, so the potential is there to start every journey with a fully charged battery. For topping up on the go, public charging points are conveniently located in places that people regularly frequent, from supermarkets and shopping centres to car parks and local attractions – as well as many traditional fuel stations, of course. These can be identified on the move using helpful third-party smartphone apps such as Zap-Map, or through the Lexus Public Charging Network, a subscription-based service built into the Lexus Link+ owners’ app.

• Practical range: You can probably achieve more miles than you normally need from a full charge. Given that the average duration of a commute to work is 15-29 minutes, it is entirely possible that a week’s worth of travel is comfortably within the driving range of a modern EV. For example, the owner of a new Lexus UX 300e could theoretically complete a 25-mile round trip for five consecutive days and still have more than 150 miles to spare for the weekend. The average range of a modern EV is 212 miles (the UX 300e mentioned above has a WLTP range of 279 miles*), which is enough to get you from Bristol to Leeds, or from London to Swansea.

• Durable batteries: Current estimates place the average lifespan of a modern EV battery at 15-20 years, or the equivalent of around 200,000 miles. The battery pack is a component that is engineered from the outset to outlive the host vehicle, and each modern EV has a battery management system in place to prevent battery degredation during its cycles of charging and discharging. Vehicle manufacturers also offer battery warranties to give additional peace of mind. Lexus, for example, offers a standard eight-year / 100,000-mile warranty on its EV batteries; and this is extendable to ten years or 600,000 miles!

• Emergency situations: So far we have discussed how far you can drive and the expansive nature of the charging network. But what if circumstances somehow conspired so far against you that you did indeed run out of power midway through a journey? What happens then? Many national breakdown services now offer EV assistance as standard, some of which include onboard charging directly from the recovery vehicle that will deliver enough juice to get you to the nearest charging point.

Electric vehicle range anxiety: conclusion

While some drivers have become fixated on the issue of EV range anxiety, it must not escape our notice that all vehicles have a maximum range. We have been coordinating our mobility around this fact since the day we passed our driving test. Most modern EVs have sufficient range to handle 99% of the journeys we make without needing to stop and be recharged. But if you are anxious about needing to go the extra mile (or miles) then you can always pause at one of the 35,000+ public charging points dotted throughout the UK.

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Read more: Lexus explains – driving an electric vehicle in Europe

*Electric range figures are the maximum official (WLTP) test values provided for comparison purposes and can vary depending on factors such as selected grade and transmission, accessories fitted (post-registration), driving style, weather conditions, speed, vehicle and battery age and vehicle load. Figures obtained after full battery charge. It is best to only compare electric range figures with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect your real-life driving results.